Interesting Archaeological Discoveries in June 2026

OGN spotted a handful of interesting stories during the month. Here's a quick summary.

Credit: South West Heritage Trust

Spectacular Roman Ring: The 1,700-year-old gold ring, found by a metal detectorist in an English field and deemed a “treasure,” is described as “a truly remarkable find”. The detectorist said: “At first I thought it was a coin, then a brooch, and then realised it was a ring. One of the boys I was with was screaming: ‘We’re rich, we’re rich.’” Their good fortune extended further because he also found some gold coins.

Athena Uncovered: A 2-meter-tall (6.6-foot-tall) statue of Athena carved from white marble has been unearthed at the archaeological site of Laodiceia, in modern-day Turkey. The statue was found facedown amid debris and is almost completely intact, with only its head missing. Archaeologists believe the sculpture dates to the reign of Emperor Augustus, who ruled from 27 BCE to 14 CE.

Imagine The Excitement: A 6 year-old boy finds an ancient Viking sword on a school trip in Norway. The weapon is a single-sided iron sword known at the time as a scramseax, and was designed to be sharp on only one side in order to increase the heft behind its cutting ability. The sword has now been transferred to the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, where it will be cleaned and preserved so that it can be studied further.

World's Oldest Shower Shoes: Archaeologists have discovered thousands of preserved shoes at Vindolanda, an ancient Roman fort along Hadrian's Wall. But this one is quite possibly the world's oldest example of a shower shoe. The 'bath clog' - which consists of a wooden platform sole and a leather upper - was a forerunner of the kind of slip-on shoe we wear in locker room showers for sanitary reasons. But the Romans wore the platform clogs - which they called 'sculponeae' - to protect themselves from the hot, slippery floors of the bath house.